Happy New Year! Two months have passed since I last wrote on this page. Some of you have responded with advice to my last published editorial titled: “Do I really need to loosen up?” One reader wrote me to say: “Don’t loosen up, Walt. That’s your edge … keeps people just a little off-guard and on their best behavior.”
As long as it’s taken me to write just a few words for this page, I must be off my game just a bit. That’s probably because at the urging of my doctor and family, I did the opposite of that reader’s advice over the holiday season and loosened up a bit. I found it to be reinvigorating.
Where’s Walt?
When I wasn’t traveling or eating turkey, one of the things I did was finish a book, Drive , from my business management reading list. For me, many of its points were applicable on an individual level. But I also found a few insights that might be helpful to dairy owners and managers. Click here to read my review of the book and learn more.
With the exception of Thanksgiving, I was on the road to visit dairy producers in California and Texas. Among those we visited were three producers who will be featured in upcoming issues.
One of the producers we visited, Todd Moore of Emory, Texas, is featured in this issue. Click here to view this article. His strawberry drinkable yogurt was memorable. I also tried the piña colada, Moore’s favorite. I thought it was most appropriate since I was taking it easy.
All the producers we visited will be part of our seminar series to be held at World Ag Expo in Tulare, California, in February. (Read the other producers’ stories in the next two issues.)
We’re in the post-production process of creating mini-documentaries to show at the expo. Later this spring, you will be able to watch them online. I think you will find each of their approaches to managing volatile milk prices and strategies for long-term success interesting. Click here to subscribe now to our e-newsletters to start seeing behind-the-scenes sneak peeks of their operations.
Government’s fiscal ills just starting to impact dairies
By the time you receive this magazine, coverage of the single-biggest issue facing dairies may be absent from the pages of this magazine. As of this writing, just before Christmas, the fiscal and dairy cliffs still look very real. And by some indications, even if a fiscal deal is reached it likely won’t include farm bill provisions, let alone dairy. It would be a Christmas miracle if it did.
Please know that we are following the “dairy cliff” and, if necessary, will be reporting on the topic through our electronic platforms – including our website and newsletter during the first few weeks of the new year. Few have wanted to talk much about parity pricing and its complexities until it was a reality.
Experts deny it will actually happen because it hasn’t before. We won’t know until the mailbox date for this issue if dairy’s “sky is falling” and whether it may be as apocalyptic as some predict. If the event actually unfolds, look online for our current reporting. Like many others, I hope for some sanity in Washington to avoid what is unnecessary gridlock and uncertainty.
This issue also contains a backgrounder on how government funding cuts will soon impact dairy cattle evaluations. Click here to read this article. I believe there are more impacts like this one still yet to come for the dairy industry.
The USDA has already tried once to stop publishing some of its lesser-known reports and costly data sets – for example, its Ag Labor report. It soon found that they needed the data to calculate other, more critical production cost data and had to start doing the reports again. It’s a safe bet more reports will be on the chopping block in the future. PD
Walt Cooley
Editor
Progressive Dairyman
